Show three maision barrels of oil be destroy lives of fire fighters said to have been lost hamble texas july 24 covering an area of three quarters of a alla square with a great canopy of smoke covering two square miles the oil of the texas company continue to boil and bubble under the great beat of the burning oil the fire having burned all night when it can be extinguished no ano guesses certainly not until it has burned all of the oil in the eleven big tanks which held barrels when lightning struck them sunday afternoon it is now that five of the negro workmen perished and the rumors place tho cumber of dead as high as fifty though this cannot be confirmed there are hundreds of homeless people cany of them only awaiting a train to go to houston for shelter they were living in tents and shacks in the oil field and fled for their lives to the town away from danger they left all their belongings and they have fleca destroyed by fire which runs out toward the old field though it has not yet been communicated to any of the derricks and wells during the whole bof the night there was a heavy downpour of rain and this covered the ground with a sheet of water coating which Is a thick film of oil it this waste oil catches fire then it Is ble that the tanks of the goffoy corn the sun company and the smaller owners may go these tanks hold barrels cf oil shortly after the big tank began to blaze workmen with seventy five were hurried to the place to throw up earthen embankments to the fire to the tank where it originated suddenly the oil gave an I 1 upheaval bubbled and lifted a great I 1 mass of the burning fluid bodily out of the tank and the alre was communicated munica ted to three other of the tanks the burning oil caught the men and mules and hemmed them in there was a ald scramble tor safety berf i deserting the scrapers and running ma ot them mounted mules and rode butout at least forty ot the mules balked ami were cremated five negroes were seen to go down and it is not believed possible they could have escaped while all of the men have not been accounted for these five are all that are certainly known to have perished I 1 at 4 this morning alre broke out in the steel tanks of the texas company at the pumping station a mile from the original alre age Is being done cannot be ascertained yet because it is impossible to reach that part of the field at 10 the fire was still raging with no prospect of its immediate control it is believed however that the flames will eventually be confined to the district there are 3 barrels of oil n these storage tanks all of which will be destroyed the losses are already estimated at three quarters of a million or more with practically no insurances reports of fatalities have not been verified although a number of men are missing |